


Mon Arc-en-Ciel

by TinyFrost



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, also I kinda want to give a reason behind that bird nest he's got on his head, also he's got issues from his past school, be prepared for a little graphic description, but he too shy and awkward, homophobia cough cough, not to spoil you but, poor Marc's got a crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-06-22 14:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15583653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyFrost/pseuds/TinyFrost
Summary: Marc Anciel didn’t think of his face or his attitude to be something to carve a deep impression in the minds of those who meet him. And that was a good thing.After suffering from a horrible incident in his previous school, Marc arrives to Collége François Dupont with the firm decision of only assisting to class, getting good grades and making friends if possible. His plan however, is thrown off the window the exact second Nathaniel Kurtzberg makes an entrance in his life, bringing back memories of pain...





	1. A Fail in the Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I ship these two dorks really hard but I wanted something with a little more fluff and angst than what we got on that episode so this is really self-indulgent.  
> Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Marc Anciel didn’t think of his face or his attitude to be something to carve a deep impression in the minds of those who meet him. And that was a good thing.

When arriving to the College Francois Dupont, he was sure the one and single time his classmates from group B had paid attention to him had been during his first-day presentation when he had introduced himself, said his age, a few of his likes and that was all before Madame Bustier asked him to take a seat. He climbed all the way up to the very last seat and stablished himself there.

His classmates lost interest on him when they realized he was one of those eternally quiet kids who never spoke at class, hunched over a notebook, never raising his hand for the answer and still were quite loved by the teachers because of his good grades. Marc thought it would be like that the rest of his school life until the first Langue Française class came at eleven in the morning.

That one single class had to mix both A and B groups so the teacher, a man busy with his university chair, could literally end two birds with one stone. There, even though he tried to make for the last seats, he had no success and ended up exactly in the middle of the room, next to a couple of girls who looked like your always present ‘bff duo’.

Marc decided to simply ignore the girl’s giggles and chit-chats and stick to take notes of what the professor was talking about on the blackboard, holding back the impulse to pull his hoodie over his head.

“Wow!” a cheerful voice exclaimed next to him “Your calligraphy is so pretty!”

His nervous eyes darted to his left and met a girl his writer mind could only describe as ‘a beautiful palette of pink and blue shades in the shape of a person’. She had sapphire eyes, pink plump lips like his own and a set of pigtails down her head. A really pretty girl.

“Ah… thanks” damn, that thanking didn’t sound very thankful. Pretty Girl would now think he was a jerk and if she had the slightest intention of being friends with him, she had probably threw those intentions off the classroom’s window.

To Marc’s surprise, Pretty Girl kept smiling at him and was leaning to get a glance at his notes even though he was completely sure she had the exact same on her own notebook.

“Do you practice calligraphy?” Pretty Girl insisted “Oh, where are my manners?! I’m Marinette, Marinette Dupain Cheng!”

Marc could feel his own lips part in surprise when he took notice of the hand extended at him with politeness. He reached to it and shook it, drawing a smile on Marinette’s face. Oh right! He had to introduce himself.

“I’m Marc Anciel” he replied in a quieter voice than planned

Marinette gave him the confused look he was used to get whenever he introduced himself. Sometimes he would like to ask his parents if giving him that name had been either a prank or a lost bet.

“Wow, such a pretty name!” Marinette smiled wider if possible and moved backwards a little so he could have a glance at her companion, a tanned girl he could describe only using a palette of autumn colors “This is Alya, we’re going at the cafeteria after class. Wanna come with us?”

Accepting that invitation would probably be one of the best decisions he had made.

Marinette was just like her looks suggested: a nice, kind and understanding girl who didn’t get away once she knew about his strange liking for writing, about the stories he had written, about the storytelling contests he had went under ever since elementary and about his collection of ‘unfinished but soon to be novels’ collection split between his laptop and a bunch of notebooks. God, she even found it interesting.

“Say, did you know this school has an art club?” Alya looked up from her phone while mentioning that “Marinette could even introduce you there!”

“Yeah!” the raven haired chirped “I bet all of the other guys would be thrilled to know you! We lack someone who’s good with words in the gang, most of us like more the visual thing… but I bet the prof can also showcase your work on the school’s webpage!”

The very word ‘showcase’ sent chills down Marc’s spine.

“Ah… showcase it?!” he basically jumped in fright until his brain diverted into a realization along with all of the worst-case scenarios “Wait, that means the person who draws Ladybug and Chat Noir is in that club?”

Both girls opened widened their eyes in surprise before nodding vigorously. Oh damn, now he had given them an excuse to drag him to their club.

“So you know about Nath’s art!” Alya exclaimed

“Nath?”

The girls then filled him up on the ‘Dessinateur’ incident, making him curious about Marinette’s blush. The Dessinateur’s powers sounded so cool and the incident sure had storytelling material, something that ‘Nath’ had obviously realized when he had started to make all of those amazing drawings that had inspired him to write a collection of stories, one per each drawing he released.

“When are your classes over?” Marinette inquired “I can take you to the art room once you’re done for the day and introduce you to everyone!”

His mind immediately panicked, quickly spreading to his wobbly tongue.

“Ah… oh, I don’t think I can make it today, you see, I’ve got homework for the day and also some stuff my counselor told me to get done as soon as possible because I’m already delayed on some subjects because I just entered so maybe I can’t make it today and…” he felt the warmth of embarrassment spreading through his cheeks before he hunched and pouted his lips “So…sorry Marinette”

Before his brain started to blame him on ruining a potential friendship, Marinette told him not to worry about it and to tell her whenever he had a free afternoon to hang out at the art room.

Marinette Dupain Cheng would be his first and best friend at the College Francois Dupont.

 

* * *

 

Langue Française soon ended up being Marc’s favorite class as the weeks passed on. He had, slow and steady, made a few other friends and acquaintances amongst class B but he had to admit that Marinette was his favorite face to see around school.

Well, he had another one, maybe slightly more favorite than Marinette. But he wouldn’t say it out loud, or let it show if he could avoid it.

He really didn’t want any more problems, nor for him, nor for his mother nor for the redhead boy who would usually sit seven seats to his right.

Marc had seen him for the first time at the very beginning of his third class, when said boy had barely arrived in time to the classroom and rushed to his place. And he would be lying if he denied how he felt the blush extending over his cheeks and his lips part slightly in a surprised breath.

The very first thing he noticed was obviously the beautiful cascade of carnation red hair falling over smooth and almost delicate features. This particular characteristic would later allow him to identify him in the blink of an eye. He wasn’t an actual bunch of twigs and skin like he was, but his broad shoulders stuck a fantasy on how amazing a hug given by him would be on the back of Marc’s mind.

Once, when the redhead had missed his usual seat and ended in front of Marc, he had the chance to notice his fingers were long and slender and the visible softness of those rosy hands made Marc wonder how his caresses would feel over his cheeks.

But Marc’s favorite thing about his silent crush were his beautiful jade eyes. They were the part he could have the least glances of when in class, since they were supposed to be fixed either on the blackboard or on their books, maybe that was the reason Marc thought those eyes fitted perfectly on the description of being like a pair of jewels: bright, precious and difficult to find.

However, being realist, aside from his appearance, he hardly knew anything about him.

What if he was like that mean girl Burgeois who always had to answer back the teacher and piss off at least one of their classmates per day? What if he was one of those meanies who would bully quiet kids like himself? What if he wasn’t into art at all? What if he wasn’t the kind person he had created a fantasy around? Most importantly, what if he wasn’t even into guys?

And that, was exactly why he didn’t like to overthink, although it wasn’t something he couldn’t control at all.

To distract his brain from working all of those extra hours, he had stuck to the notifications on his phone alerting him whenever ‘Nath’ uploaded a new sketch to the school’s webpage. The movement, expressions, the action those illustration were absolutely amazing to the point Marc had even started to write down a story based on them.

He liked to write the story into parts just the way the images came up, as if Nath drew memories of past days and he and his pencil gave the words to them.

He was sitting underneath one of the staircases, notebook and pencil in hand, drifting his eyes between the work on the paper and his cellphone with the latest Ladybug and Chat Noir illustration update when a familiar voice almost made him hit his head against the metal of the stairs.

“Hi Marc!” Marinette chirped at his ear.

aHis first impulse was to hide his notebook away inside his hoodie along with his cellphone. Marinette seemed to know he had ran out of excuses to avoid going with her to the art room so as much as he tried to drift her away from the thought, before he realized, he found himself at the entrance of room 33 with his heartbeats resonating in his eardrums.

Like darts, his eyes started to scan around the room finding bright colors mixed without a notion of aesthetic but ruled only by the creative ambiance floating in the room. Not only there was evident proof of the creation of visual arts like the huge wall painted in graffiti the girl introduced as Alix was painting or the mannequins and spread fabrics which evidenced Marinette’s doing but also the musical pentagrams drawn in large whiteboards next to the girls introduced as Rose and Juleka.

Everything in the room made him think of a perfect creative space until a carnation red mane made his heart climb all the way to his throat in surprise and fear.

“Oh! And Nath…” Marinette was still introducing her friends ignoring how her words were making Marc have a heart attack.

“…He likes drawing people in skinny suits!” Alix mocked in the back, but Marc's brain didn't process her words as it was busy with making his heart beat as if he had just competed in the Tour de France.

It was him… Nath and his redhead crush from Langue Française were the same person.


	2. A New Start

Marc was lying on his hospital bed, trying with all his heart to grab the spoon without bruising his fingers anymore. The chocolate jelly on the plate before him was the only thing that tasted sort of good and he wasn’t going to let something tasty escape him, not when his taste buds had been complaining for a week.

“ _Mon ange_ ” his mother mumbled next to him over her laptop “would you like me to do it?”

He denied with his head. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he was so done with people doing everything for him and he being barely able to sit on the bed. His mother Roxanne sighed quietly and continued her typing.

Timothee, his father, would be switching with her during the afternoon, after he had paid a visit to another potential house and another potential school. Marc felt the absolute guilt boiling in his stomach with all of the trouble he had caused his parents during the last week, no matter how much them both assured him he was in no way to blame for what had happened.

Ugh. Now the jelly tasted bitter in his mouth.

“ _Mon ange_ , papa says he is packing your journal boxes and asks if there is anything you want to throw away before the moving”

He didn’t even doubted when he answered with a plain ‘tell him to throw away everything’. It wasn’t even necessary to turn his head to see his mother’s eyes open wide in shock.

Marc would expect the immediate thrill of questions and denials coming from Roxanne’s mouth. Those journals with different stories split between them had been his most precious possession seven days before, and even when they weren’t completely to blame for what had and was happening to him and his family, they were a reminder of it.

The farther those things were from him, the better.

“Marc,” his mother’s voice broke the silence.

His mother would never call him like that unless she was about to scold him or to have a serious talk with him. That alone, made Marc turn his head only to meet with a tight embrace, making his food tray tumble on his lap.

“Your writing and your journals are part of who you are” she mumbled softly in his ear “You shouldn’t be afraid of who you are… and I’m not only talking about your journals, _mon ange_ ”

Tears fogged Marc’s emerald eyes when he heard those words.

Ever since he had been hospitalized, he had only cried once when doctors had fixed and bandaged his broken rib, but not when his feelings had struck. But now, he felt his body limp, as he let himself drown in the embrace and cry his eyes out on his mother’s shoulder. It had been difficult for him to understand, but now that his mother had said it, he realized how he wasn’t ashamed of that part of himself.

He was afraid.

Neither mother nor son counted the minutes they spent in that position but they didn’t pull apart until Marc had shed his last tear on the subject. Calculating by the now faint light entering the room, Timothee wouldn’t take too long to arrive.

While they waited for his father to arrive and his eyes to return to their normal state, Roxanne showed him on of the schools she had been reviewing on her laptop. The school’s page shown some photos of the building with its huge courtyard in the very middle, ridiculously large classrooms and a variety of clubs here and there. Roxanne didn’t even need his son to say a word for her to click on the Art Club’s page.

Ah, it had been a while since Marc’s eyes had opened so wide in awe. They spent a good half an hour looking at the project gallery until Timothee arrived with a bag of clothes and a gift.

“The rest of them are already on their way to our new home so I thought I would get you something to spare time with” he smiled to his son while reaching him a neatly wrapped squared gift.

It was a beautiful black, hard cover and thick paper brand new journal. It was a beautiful gift and he already knew what to use it on.

He started to write _Le Journal de Ladybug_ that very night…and it wouldn’t be long the artist who had became his muse (and his crush) would tear it apart.

Why had he thought it would be different this time? Why had he expected Nathaniel would like for them to work together? Had he thought the other boy could develop feelings for him? Was he that stupid? His heart had just been shattered to pieces and yet he had thought the first guy to step into his sight was the one who would fix it?

Fear and sadness started to climb up his entire body.

Why?

Why?

Why?

His vision blacked out and his brain shut off.

Next thing he knew, he was falling from the Eiffel Tower behind Chat Noir. Just when Marc was about to start his prayers on his pretty certain death, grabbing him by the waist before gently placing him on the ground.

In normal conditions, Marc would have immediately thanked the heroes but the moment Nathaniel stepped out of the elevator, he had been on the verge of wishing Chat Noir hadn’t saved him so the ground could swallow him and wash his embarrassment away.

He had to admit he was a little bit resentful about his notebook being ripped, but that was something he could easily replace with one of the many journals he kept inside one of the stationary supply boxes his dad gave him every now and then. But having being so ridiculously devastated as to cause so much chaos around Paris? Even threatening his best friend Marinette and his crush Nathaniel? Now he could hardly think of a worse version of himself and if it existed, he was sure he didn’t want to know anything else about it.

“Marc and Nathaniel” Ladybug got their attention as she walked towards them “by now you’d realize there was a big misunderstanding, but if you give each other a chance, I’m sure you’ll find how well you can work together!”

Marc bit his inner lip, repressing the impulse of tentatively reaching out his hand. But he just couldn’t manage his muscles to collaborate, possibly taking the side of his brain which dictated it was better to stay quiet than to make a fool of himself.

¿Who would even like to shake hands with someone who has toyed with your feelings?

Just as if he had listened the question floating through his mind, Nathaniel broke the icy barrier which had built between them by reaching his hand at him. Marc didn’t hold back his smile as he shook the other’s hand gently, quietly realizing how soft Nathaniel’s hands were, only a little thicker around the fingertips probably developed after years of drawing.

Before his blush gave him away, he retired his hand from the grip. He wished he could have lingered a little, but the still-rational part of his brain only had to show him a quick flashback to erase that wish off his mind.

After the heroes were off, Alix and Nathaniel offered Marc to share a cab back to Kubdel’s at the Louvre but, completely flustered, he turned down the offer before going back home in another taxi.

Roxanne was waiting for him at the living room, clearly turned into a bundle of nerves after watching the news where an akumatized villain looked too similar to his Marc. She squeezed him so hard Marc thought his injured rib would break again and cried so much in relief the boy could feel his rainbow t-shirt getting wet.

Once his mother was a bit calmer, he properly explained her everything, leaving aside a bit of drama before he was akumatized.

“ _Mon ange,_ you know that I support you in absolutely everything you are but… are you ok with being close to that boy after this?” she asked with worry, caressing his hand.

Marc understood her concern perfectly. Maybe his old self would have obeyed the same fear tendency his mother was on that moment, but his now self knew that his orientation was not wrong, that it was something which was going to last until his last breath, that he couldn’t be living the rest of his life intimidated or scared of what would happen if he fell for someone. And Nathaniel was giving him a chance in it, if not as a mutual crush, he did as a friend.

“I don’t want to be scared anymore, _maman_ ” he gave back the caress “And this is my chance to stop being scared of who I am”

After another hug, a bunch of butterfly kisses on his face and having dinner with his parents, Marc found himself smiling widely at his bedroom’s ceiling, pretty sure he was going to have a pleasant dream that night.

* * *

 

It was three o’clock of the next day, classes were over, Marc had repaired his journal and was standing right behind the doorframe of classroom thirty three. But he couldn’t gather courage enough to enter.

The previous day, he had really felt that he actually wouldn’t have been scared of stealing a little peck off Nath’s lips…but right all of that courage seemed to have stayed under the Eiffel tower. This was a bad idea and he knew it, then why in the world was he there? His mom’s lunch break wasn’t over yet, should he ask her to pick him up early?

“Marc?” Nath’s voice coming from the classroom turned his legs into jelly “Oh, glad you made it. Come in, I wanna show you something”

The poor boy felt he was going to faint when Nathaniel grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him inside the classroom. It was basically empty save for Rose and Juleka working in a song at the back, both wearing headphones and clearly busy with their creative process yet they managed to greet Marc back when he waved hello.

“I brought all of the illustrations I had back at home, some are colored but some are still in process because I have trouble with the shading” Nathaniel explained while extending the content of an entire box over one of the working tables “I also brought some sketches because I thought maybe I could work on some modifications so they can go along your story… if you want us to work in the comic, that is”

Marc was conscious his lips had slightly opened in surprise and that he needed to answer something but no words would come out of his mouth. Nathaniel looked at him probably expecting an answer, but when he realized he wasn’t getting one soon, he gulped and kept speaking.

“I… I’m really sorry for what happened yesterday” the redhead blurted “I should have never acted the way I did, I experienced something like what I did to you so I know that you probably don’t want to forgive me anytime soon. Yet, please know that I… I want to be your friend and to get along with you, not only because of the comic but because I want to be close to you”

The word ‘friend’ hit Marc right in the feels but he made his best for his face not to show it, however when Nath said he wanted to be closer, the warmth he felt over his cheeks were a clear sign his blush had given him away.

“I..if that’s what you want too,” he managed to say “then I guess the comic would be a good way to start, don’t you think?”

Nath smiled at him, offering his hand just the way he had done the previous day under the Eiffel tower. But this time it was different. It wasn’t just an agreement to work together, but the start of a friendship.

 

 

 


	3. When past affects the present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! This chapter has graphical violence by the last part!

Roxanne and Timothee Anciel had discovered their son’s passion for writing when Marc was barely eight years old.

By that time, most kids would start to get bored of bedtime stories either because they have started to feel embarrassed of them being ‘childish’ or because they had found interest in something else. But in Marc’s case that had been because he got bored of them being always the same stories.

“ _Mon ange_ ” his mother would reply gently caressing his cheek when she was about to start the reading and Marc complaint “we can’t buy you new books right now. Your birthday is really close, why don’t we wait until then? I can even get you to the bookstore so you choose them”

“Can I write a story then, _maman_?”

His first writing journal was a gift from his father, a thick paste, softened craft paper notebook with green decorations on the front, small enough to fit in his back pack but large enough for him to write comfortably. He would take it to school and write during his breaks, something that his teachers would be ok with except from that time he got sent home early for a stomachache he got from neglecting his lunch because he was busy writing.

Amongst all of the journals Marc used to bring in his backpack to school, there was one which was what he liked to call his ‘warmup’ notebook. He would usually write a quick thing just to move his hand a little and exercise a little his grammar first thing in the morning whenever his brain was still a little asleep.

However, those first words would usually be his own thoughts and part of those thoughts would also be his crush on Anton Jacqard.

Anton Jacqard was Collége des Tuilleries’ main star when it came to Judo, representing the school in various tournaments and championships around France and winning most of them. Marc knew he wasn’t the only one at school who had a crush on the almond-haired, gentle faced boy. But he was pretty sure he was the only guy who did.

That’s why he should’ve known better and not to write it down on his journals which could be easily read by anyone who pulled them out of his bag. And that someone came to be one of Anton’s tough-looking friends.

Yeah. He should have known better…

 

* * *

 

 

Marc and Nathaniel were so happy they could have happily died in the spot.

Their first six issues were finally done, six forty-paged, slim booklets in full color which had taken two whole months of staying after classes until they had their parents beeping outside of the school at scandalizing eight o’clock and even coming in during the weekends at first hour in the morning. But it had been worth it.

“We did it!” Nathaniel cheered while closing one of the booklets

“This feels so weird” Marc smiled while absently passing the pages of another one “Now we just have to send them for printing?”

Nathaniel nodded, they had already talked with a printing service nearby school so they could start to hand out a their comic’s first issue to their friends and teachers at the Collége so they would have their first batch ready by the next weekend. The artist duo had even talked down the possibility of taking their comic to one of the Ladybug & Chat Noir Fanclub’s meetings. Alya, a prominent member, had invited them to the club’s next monthly event.

Marc was smiling widely while caressing the cover of the booklet his fingers held while thinking of all the things that had changed ever since working on the comic, obliviously ignoring the glances the redhead was giving him.

“Hey,” Marc was brought back to earth when the other called him “what do you say if we go celebrate?”

“Sure!” the poor boy was pretty sure he had let his voice give him away “B…but, where? It’s kind of late and I guess it won’t be too late until my mom comes pick me up…”

Nice move Marc, his brain sarcastically congratulated, he was offering you an almost-date and there you go throwing it off the window saying its late. It wasn’t even six o’clock for god’s sake!

“Then, how about we go to the Dupain-Cheng’s?” thankfully, Nathaniel was completely deaf to his brain’s voice “I know they’re still open and it’s close to school”

Marinette welcomed them both with her huge friendly smile which got wider the moment the boys told her they were there to celebrate they had just finished their first six issues. She made them sit in one of the tables her parents would place right outside the _patisserie_ during the afternoon when besides from their usual confectionary, they would also serve coffee.

“Pick anything you want!” she passed them the menus cheerfully “Milkshakes are on me!”

Before the boys could refuse, Marinette was already back inside pouring ice cream and strawberries inside a blender.

“The honey cheesecake is really tasty here” Nathaniel pointed

Marc laid his gaze off the window only to find that Nathaniel was staring at him across the table. A table they were sitting in front of, in a café, about to have pastries, with the sunset happening in the background and the Eiffel tower watching over them. Like if they were on a date.

“You like sweet things, right?” Nathaniel insisted

“Ah…yeah” Marc muttered completely flustered “I’ll go with that, what about you?”

Marinette came in like a dazing breeze carrying two large glasses full to the top in pink milk topped with whipped cream and decorated with strawberry slices and baton cookies.

“Two milkshakes for my favorite artists!” she cheered “What would you like along them? _Papa_ just took a bunch of _pain au chocolat_ out of the oven and the berrie cold pie is super tasty too!”

“We’ll have a honey cheesecake and a _puit d’amour_ , please”

Marc knew that Nathaniel’s order had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on inside his head but he couldn’t help the blush extending over his face lying exposed the moment Marinette picked his menu off. He wished they could have Marinette sit with them, but she noted she was busy helping her parents prepare frappes and ice tea for the incoming late customers.

“Well, to our comic!” Nathaniel raised his milkshake to make a toast

“To our comic!” Marc replied with a little less cheerfulness than he had intended.

Nath was right when he mentioned how good the honey cheesecake was, it smoothly melted inside his mouth and even the looks were appealing. Marc let his eyes wander to the boy sitting in front of him, he was evidently enjoying his own marmalade-dripping dessert, he seemed so happy in that moment that he almost ignored that the redhead was staring at him.

He immediately diverted his eyes back to the super interesting creamy frosting of his cheesecake.

“Marc?” he raised up his face anew when he heard his name “I…uh, there’s something I want to ask you”

The poor boy felt an entire spoonful of cake getting struck in his throat when he tried to gulp down his surprise. Feeling really unable to give a vocal answer, he nodded at Nathaniel.

“I know it’s already been a while but, are you still resentful for what happened with Reverser?” oh, the spoonful had gone down “I mean, whenever we are working on the comc you always are really cheered, you don’t seem so shy to interact with other people and you even sound excited when it comes to show it to others that come into the art room…but when we are alone, you’re always busy writing and avoid talking to me or looking at me. My point is, are you still angry at me?”

 Well, you can’t certainly tell him ‘Hey, it’s because I have the biggest crush on you and whenever you stare at me I feel like if I just ran a marathon through all of France’, can you? His brain’s whispers made his hand palms damp in cold sweat and his legs now felt ready to run away any second.

 “I… I don’t think I was ever mad at you” his brain better shut up before he spilled something Nathaniel shouldn’t hear “I was sad when the Reverser incident happened but I was never angry. But in one way or another, you and your art were my muses to write… so I guess I still get nervous around you because…”

What if he said it? Could it be that bad? Maybe things would get a little awkward between them if Nath didn’t feel the same way, but at least he would be honest, right?

Right, just like what happened with Anton, Marc’s brain replied keeping his tongue sealed like a coffin.

“Because I admire you” the honey in his mouth suddenly tasted bitter with the guilt of lie.

Nathaniel gave him an understanding smile from the other side of the table “Well, I have to say I’m relieved in a sense but I’d also like you to see me as a friend instead of a coworker, you know?”

A friend. Yeah, he could easily fake that.

“Alright, I’ll try”

Roxanne’s car didn’t take too long after that in parking in front of the school’s entrance where her son was supposed to be. Marc placed his part of the bill, thanked Marinette and rushed to the vehicle mumbling apologies at his mother.

“If you were celebrating, you could’ve just given me a call so I came later” he wouldn’t say it out loud but he was actually thankful she had came in so early “Anyway, that friend of yours seemed really nice, you should bring him for lunch sometime…I mean I can’t cook anything decent but _papa_ could make a casserole and maybe some dessert”

“I’d like that” Marc mumbled with a low-key smile

 

* * *

 

 

Marc was running.

His legs were threatening to give in any second, as if they were made of jelly, but the fear running fast and hot through his spine was stronger than tha sense of tiredness or than the aching of the bruises on his knees made the multiple falls he had had so far. it wasn't like he knew where he was running to, he had already roamed half the Collége des Tuilleries and his surroundings indicated he was making towards the farthest end of the soccer field. He didn't care where he was going, he only wanted to get as far as possible from Anton and his friends.

"Come back here you damn faggot!" Anton yelled at his back.

Tears started to fog his vision, impeding him from seen the hole on the field. His right foot went in and his body went down with a deaf thud.

The first wave of pain came from his ankle, bent into an unnatural position as paramedics would later notice. Marc tried to find support on his elbows to stand anew, but his effort was interrupted by Anton’s foot sending a kick to his stomach. Air escaped his lungs, but he didn’t have time to recover when a new wave of kicks and fists rained over him.

Marc tried to scream for help even when he knew how unlikely it would be for someone to come at his rescue when the soccer field was empty at those hours of the afternoon.

He felt bruises starting to form on his back and the sides of his torso, blood started to run making his skin feel warm and his clothes wet, his throat was starting to ache after he had basically emptied his voice. Someone grabbed him by the neck, he commanded his arms to let him loose out of the grip, but his poor limbs felt like pieces of loose fabric and he barely managed to rose the hand strangling him, his face squinted in fear and pain.

“I bet your parents never got you to the hospital to cure your gayness, did they?” Anton asked mockingly, each word hurting Marc more than all the injures on his body “Don’t worry, I’m gonna give you a little help here”

Anton wasn’t the gentle face Marc was used to see around school anymore, but a wicked and frightening one he knew was going to give him nightmares for years to come.

The first fist came straight to his lips, making them go immediately numb in pain and probably swollen. The second came to his left eye, his vision on that side going immediately black. The third fist stroke against the side of his head, something that in that moment seemed the most merciful thing in the world for Marc.

After that he knew the rest were against his head, but he stopped counting them as the world turned into a swirl of darkness and faint voices

_“…off him!”_

_“Oh my…!”_

_“…an ambulance!”  
_

Marc woke up with a scream drowned inside his throat, tears distorting the ceiling of his room and making his cheeks feel damp.

He wished it was a simple nightmare, something it would wash off his life the following morning after having breakfast with his parents instead of being a memory he had to talk weekly to a psychiatrist paid by Anthon’s parents while he was locked inside a youth reformatory. A memory which would come rushing back to his mind every time he looked at his reflection on the mirror when his eyes diverted to the messy part of his hair, right where stitches had to be made to save his life.

Why couldn’t he have a love story? Why couldn’t he have someone to cuddle while watching movies, to have milkshake and cake dates during quiet afternoon o kiss his lips as a good day wish? Why did his past come running whenever he had finally forgot about it? Why whenever he looked at Nathaniel his brain basically slapped him and the wound on the back of his head tingled?

Sobs filled the rest of his night while he gripped his t-shirt tightly, trying to reach his broken heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sips tea* Aaaah, i love me some good angst in the morning ^^


	4. A Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette just realized there is one thing or two she doesn't know about Marc. A Friday movie marathon in her place seems like a nice strategy to get to know him better.  
> What was said in there, is a secret between them.

It was one night after Tikki put the lights off when, while checking her cellphone, Marinette noticed that in her birthday agenda, Marc’s name was missing.

She hadn’t noticed there were things about her friend she didn’t have the slightest idea about, like Marc’s birthday date. But that could be easily solved with an invitation to watch a Friday movie marathon with popcorn and _patisserie_ in illegal quantities sponsored by her parents. Besides, it was the very least she could do for a friend who had made a comic dedicated to her!

“Come in!” Marinette welcomed her guest at the annex door to the baker’s entrance “God, do you want a towel?”

“That’d be good. Thanks!”

April had brought a falling ocean as rain over Paris those days and they were so random through the day that Marinette wasn’t that surprised her friend’s clothes looked as if he had put them on right after they were off the washing machine. Poor Marc looked like a walking wet mop and it took two towels and a hair dryer session to make the boy look normal again.

“Sorry for the bother!” Marc apologized through the noise of the dryer

“It’s fine!” Marinette answered in the same volume “I can’t have you getting a cold on our movie night and Nath will kill me if his fav writer gets sick!”

The girl giggled quietly when she realized Marc’s cheeks were tinted in pink. Most of the Art Room members were basically waiting for the chance to make the two artists smooch each other but those two were so oblivious they gave her the most frustrating moments ever. Lucky she wasn’t like that!

“You two have been getting closer since the Fan event” Marinette noted while combing her friend’s hair back to its normal looks but it was still a little wet “I’m glad you two are friends now!”

“I am too” Marc mumbled shyly “It’s nice being friends with someone you admire”

“I know the feel” Marinette felt her own cheeks getting warm but then she thought it better “Well, more like someone I like actually”

“Adrien?” the boy turned to see her while she still had her finger intertwined in his hair, smiling mockingly.

“Oh, don’t get me started on Nathaniel, pretty boy!”

Both blushing and both teasing each other they almost finished a whole bowl of popcorn by throwing them until the Dupain-Cheng’s living room looked like a tornado-bashed candy store in the best case and like a warzone in the worst. Marinette finally started to play _Pride & Prejudice_, her guest and her having to ‘conform’ themselves with freshly baked chocolate cookies, cheese filled crackers, Italian sodas and half a bowl of popcorn.

“ _I love you_ ” Mister Darcy’s voice filled the room with his declaration “ _Most ardently…_ ”

Marinette and Marc were draped over each other, holding a cushion each with all the snack plates and eyes fixed on the screen.

“Ah…” Marinette sighed “How I wished Adrien would say something so romantic to me”

“I wished Nath did too…”

Marc’s voice had been so quiet and absent, Marinette almost didn’t hear it. But when the boy breathed in sharply when he realized those words had slipped his tongue and covered his own mouth with a loud hand slap, she knew those words hadn’t been an hallucination.

“Oh my god!” a plate of cookies fell from Marinette’s lap to the ground when she stood up to se her friend tomato red in embarrassment “So you admit it! OMG! You gotta tell me when it started right now!”

“Nooo!” Marc’s voice was all muffled when he tried to hide from the girl’s questions behind a cushion

“Aw! Come on!” Marinette insisted cheerfully “I’m curious! You two would look so cute together!”

A fountain pen needed to be bribed for the boy to come behind the cushion and speak to her. Marinette put the film’s volume to the minimum and listened closely and with a lot of attention to her friend as he told her everything, from the crush he held on Nath since he saw him for the first time to what had happened at her parent’s bakery when they were out to celebrate.

“That… that’s basically it” Marc started to toy with his gloves nervously “Please don’t tell anybody!”

Marinette simply wrapped him in a tight embrace as any answer.

“I think it’s wonderful!” she exclaimed before placing a finger over her lips “I won’t tell a soul! But I think you should tell him! Believe me when I tell you being constantly close to your crush is not exactly painless, I know it beforehand”

“It’s not that simple” Marc sighed “I…did that to someone before and it just didn’t turn out well…”

Based on those words, Marinette could easily tell that ‘didn’t turn out well’ was an incredibly smooth way to put on what had surely been a huge problem. She didn’t want to stick her nose where she shouldn’t, but that kind of things were hurtful if one kept them inside their mind and as a friend, she didn’t want to see her friends suffer.

“Does it have to do with why you switched schools?” Marinette slowly and gently placed her hand over his “You don’t have to tell me, but if you need someone to talk to, know that I’m here”

Curious how while Elizabeth Bennet was staring at her lonely mirror reflection with a saddened face, she could see the exact same expression on Marc.

A few silent seconds were necessary before Marc started to speak quietly about what had happened six months earlier at his previous school. He had to start all the way from telling her about Anton, how he was so reckless as to let that journal unsupervised and how he should have foreseen what would happen if Anton found what was written on those pages. Marc’s voice was emotionless when referring to the incident. Marinette had to hold her tears down when the boy started to tell her about the scars still marking his body and his mind.

“I ignore them when I shower, I just put on my clothes and that’s it, I won’t see them” Marc was absently touching the sides of his torso, but when his hand started to reach for the messy, uptight hair strands on the back of his head, he started to look really uncomfortable “But this… I have to look at it everyday on the mirror, on the car windows and doors… sometimes I wish _he_ hit my eyes a little harder”

Marinette couldn’t help her impulses anymore and embraced her friend in a tight hug. How she wished her powers could bring a little happiness to that boy who deserved it more than anyone in the world. What kind of monster could be so evil as to do that to someone as good and kind like Marc?

He was sobbing on her shoulder while she traced long circles on his back.

“Marc, listen to me” she whispered with her warmest voice “you deserve to be happy and please know that you have me and a whole bunch of people supporting you and really willing to be of help in your search of that happiness”

They stayed like that until they realized the film’s credits were already playing on the screen and they had to go all the way back to the confession scene after laughing of their own obliviousness. Marinette went down to the bakery to refill the plates before _Kimi No Na Wa_ started to play.

With a little chitchat and a now-full bowl of popcorn (and especially after all of that information stream), the rest of their movie marathon went on smoothly like a quiet stream, so contrary to the storm washing Paris.

* * *

It was May 31st and the countdown to Marc’s birthday had just been set.

Under Marinette’s lead, the Art Room squad already had the decorations, the music, snacks, music, gifts and, her treat, the cake. Without Paris in the constant need of being saved, everything would have been ready earlier that week but two akumas had gotten over one of the girl’s in Marc’s class and a tourism photographer.

“So, are we ready for tomorrow?” Marinette clapped her hands in delight

“I think we are!” Rose answered folding a paper decoration and hiding it behind Alix’s street art “And pretty much is hidden too!”

“Unless he comes and flips everything over, he won’t notice” Juleka agreed with her girlfriend’s words

“We are only missing the cake but I guess you don’t wanna hide it behind the mannequins right?” Alix was removing Marinette’s fabric bunches to hide the balloons and an helium container

“Listen, I’m a klutz but not a big klutz” Marinette pouted her lips and crossed her arms, faking offense “I’ll bring a tower of berry custard cake with the prettiest frosting you’ve ever seen! I just need to ask permission to put it in the canteen’s fridge”

The art room squad finished to sort the very last details as evening went on and started to leave one by one until it was only Marinette and Nathaniel left in the room. This made the girl chuckle a little.

Marc would fuse with the color of his sweatshirt if he knew how much the artist had worked to put on the party. Bringing basically all the decorations, sneaking off the classroom every time the teacher was a little distracted and looking incredibly desperate to make things right as if it was him and not Marinette the one in charge of the project.

“Hey, Mari” Nath interrupted her thoughts and tried her best so her smiling face wouldn’t give her or Marc away “you said you were going to get a berry cake?”

Marinette nodded with her hands still busy detangling balloon threads.

“Do you think you can change it? For a honey cheesecake?”

The question got Marinette off ward. Marc had been a really enthusiastic eater when it came to fruit-filled cupcakes back at their movie marathon Friday, so a berry cake had been the first idea that came to her mind when asking her parents for help with the baking.

“Honey cheesecake?” her own voice seemed confused to her ears

“That’s Marc’s favorite” Nath replied quietly. Marinette could have sworn she saw a trace of pink on the artist’s cheeks.

“I’ll make sure to make it honey then” she let out a wide smile “Thanks for the tip!”

 


	5. Malhereux anniversaire Marc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Marc's birthday and nothing could be better than a surprise party organized by his friends and a present given from boy he has a crush on...until he lets his tongue loose.

“ _Joyeux anniversaire!_ ”

Marc’s eyes weren’t even fully opened when his parent’s voices filled his ears first thing in the morning. His father carried a neatly wrapped and decorated gift box while his mother held a bowl of berries with a candle carefully holding itself with a strawberry as its base. His parents sang lively and he blew the candle off.

“Sixteen already…” his mom mumbled close to his ear when she held him in a tight hug “When did my baby boy grew so much?”

His parent’s gift was a beautiful (and clearly expensive, though they wouldn’t say it) fountain pen, a jar of colorful shimmering ink and a wonderful brush pen calligraphy set.

“ _Merci maman! Merci papa!_ ” Marc hugged them both, almost dropping his birthday _petit déjeuner_ in the process

Yeah, sixteen already. It was something shocking even for him, however he felt this to be rather special because it had been exactly one year ago since he had come out to his parents. The previous year at that exact hour, he had been so terribly nervous his hands were shaking as if it was the middle of the winter and his forehead shown pearls of cold sweat.

Instead, that day he felt the most relaxed he had felt in ages.

Marc organized his gifts neatly over his desk with the promise to use them for the first time when he came back from school. Maybe he could write something pretty, like a poem he could decorate the borders of.

Once at school, it was a little difficult for him to reach his seat or even his classroom when a wave of friends and acquaintances came in a rush to hug and congratulate him. When he was finally stablished in his seat, his hands were full of small gifts like plushies, letters and chocolates. Marc even got afraid his backpack wouldn’t be spacious enough.

“ _Joyeux anniversaire Marc!_ ” Marinette chanted in his ear, hugging Marc so tight the poor boy started to cough. As an apology, the girl passed him a decorated bag with rainbow macarons inside “Are you doing anything special in the afternoon? Are your parents taking you somewhere for lunch or something?”

“Not really, it’s midweek so they’ll be busy until night.” God, Marc thought while stuffing his mouth in multi colored macarons, how were the Dupain-Cheng’s pastries so tasty? “At best, we’ll go out for dinner.”

In previous years, they had taken him to a nice little restaurant at the Champs-Elysées or they would cook his grandmother’s sweet and spicy chicken back at home. Either of both would be awesome for him.

“Super!” Marinette tackled his neck in another hug “Then you mind coming to the Art Room after class? I want to tailor something for you but I just can’t get your measurements right”

Of course, his tries to divert Marinette off such a project were pretty useless, no matter how much he blushed or how much his voice gave away his embarrassment, his friend wouldn’t give in to his denials. Marinette still wouldn’t give in her plans for Marc’s gift.

The rest of his classes, Marc was busy receiving congratulations and gifts from the members from the Art Room and his classmates, so he eventually forgot about Marinette’s jacket. He would be lying if he didn’t admit he was both anxious and excited questioning if he would be receiving a gift from Nathaniel.

Not that he didn’t appreciate his other friends’ presents! He had received a lovely Japanese pencil case from Rose, a special edition of _Quidditch Through the Ages_ from Juleka, a concert hoodie from Ivan and even a stationery set from Adrien. All of them wonderful. But with the redhead boy it was kind of different: as if he wasn’t expecting for a birthday gift but for a Valentine’s one, like a sign for something else than just friendship.

He knew it was foolish of himself for thinking that way, but he couldn’t help it.

Morning passed by and Langue Francaise came in. Marc was basically being escorted by Marinette to his seat after a speechless agreement at the classroom’s entrance when she caught up his nervous eyes. It was so relieving to have someone on and at his side.

They started to walk up to their seats sticking to the left side so they would necessarily have to pass next to Nathaniel.

In his brain theatre, Marc had staged at least a dozen different scenarios which went all the way from Nathaniel giving him one of his awesome drawing to an invitation to the Dupain-Cheng’s _patisserie_.

No scenario, however, prepared him for what actually happened.

“Oh, hi Marc” Nathaniel’s voice didn’t show a spar of extra cheerfulness at all “Happy birthday”

Boy, did that hurt.

He felt bad for his professor for the following fifty minutes after not paying attention at him. His brain switch, as if it had been waiting for this ever since he had woken up, turned Marc’s mind into a self-chatterbox repeating the same over and over again: that was your wake up call.

“Ready for the most awesome jacket you’ll wear in your life?” Marinette interrupted his brain monologue the moment she got ahold of his arm, ready to drag him to the Art Room. Classes were over and she had just magically appeared at his classroom’s door.

“Actually, I think I ate too much candy” he mumbled “My tummy hurts a bit so I think I’ll go back home”

“Can’t you come really quick?” Marinette insisted “We can get you some meds at the infirmary on the way, but I seriously need you to come”

Marc really didn’t wanted to be exposed as a liar so, hunching over himself more than usual, he followed his friend to the other side of school. Maybe he should start to hear his brain for a change, he thought while Marinette hold him by the shoulders as if she expected him to run away any second.

Stupid. A hundred, thousand, million times stupid. Here was his best friend being happy about him and he was moping about something that would never happen? Stupid, stupid, stupid. He was going to put his best face to show gratitude for Marinette’s gift.

Yes, that’s what he was going to do.

A flash of lights turning on, a ‘ _thump_ ’ and a rain of color paper took Marc by surprise.

“Wha…?”

“SURPRISE!” a chorus of voices yelled in unison “ _JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE!_ ”

* * *

 

God, Marc had the most awesome friends in the world.

The already-colorful Art Room now looked as if a rainbow had decided to split itself into a million pieces and then get them stuck onto every single corner of the place with all the decorations everyone had brought. Nino played soft background music and Marc could see Rose and Juleka getting ready to perform for party’s guests.

As soon as he had a sandwich in one hand and a juice in the other, Marinette had disappeared, leaving him surrounded by friends who drown him in more congratulations. Yet, the moment a timid voice to his left rose its volume a little, the rest of the noise sea was shushed by miracle.

“Marc?” like a magnet, Nathaniel’s voice made him turn his head as if it was a reflex. He was holding a box neatly decorated with emerald shiny paper and a pretty silver paper bow "This is for you. Happy birthday"

Marc could feel his hands shaking when he received the decorated box, he raised his eyes at Nath as if asking permission to open his gift up. The other boy gave him a mute nod and his own hands started to open it slowly, almost fearful of ripping the decorated paper.

“Oh” was the only sound to leave his lips

Inside the box was what at first sight seemed to be one of those comic anthologies of various volumes, thick like a catalogue magazine. But a closer look would reveal an art style Marc had become familiar with in the last months and the evident handmade work in the way the pages were bind.

But what made Marc’s heart start to pound his chest as if he had run a marathon was that the figure of the main character on the cover wasn’t that of the heroes he would find at the comic stores. But of himself.

No, not Reverser. Him, Marc Anciel, as a hero. Not a hero who would turn the world upside down into chaos but a hero who would revert it back to justice and peace through the power of his special pen, writing the artifacts he needed and patrolling Paris mounted on his red paper plane.

_Ink Blast!_ read the title in a bold font his brain didn’t recall seeing in any of the options Word offered, indicating it had been created exclusively for the comic. For him.

“I remember you said you didn’t like Reverser’s powers” Nath’s voice brought him back to the Art Room “so I tried to do something better…I- I know you wanted to be a hero in the comic as well so I thought I would make something more accurate to the real Marc, you know? Of course, don’t expect too much from the dialogues, I made them without you so they aren’t good enough. I actually left some dialogue bubbles empty so you can write on them because I’d always think I just couldn’t get the word but I knew you could nail it so I left them blank…”

“Nath” Marc cut the other boy’s nervous babbling with his own voice, trying to hold back his emotion and tears “Thank you so much”

_“Joyeux anniversaire”_ everyone in the room started to sing the moment Marinette came in the room carrying a huge tray with an equally huge cake on it, the candles on its top arranged to look like a rainbow

_Joyeux anniversaire_

_Joyeux anniversaire_

_Joyeux anniversaire Marc_

_Joyeux anniversaire!_

“Blow the candles!”

“Make a wish!”

“Go Marc!”

Marc filled his lungs to the top of their capacity and let it all, extinguishing all the candle lights at once. Claps resonated through the room along with more cheers and congratulations.

“Honey cheesecake” Marc noted when he started to eat his portion “How did you know?”

Although Nath had ordered it for him at the Dupaing-Cheng’s on their first-volume-celebration ‘date’ but he really doubted Marinette would remember something so trivial in the middle of dozens of orders she got per day in her parent’s patisserie.

“Nath told me!” his friend chirped, unadvised of how blushed those words made him “Actually, he did a lot for this to be possible”

The redhead boy didn’t seem to be around for Marc’s relief. He could speak and blush freely without the fear to get caught, his personalized comic laying next to him safely kept inside the decorated box and the music and his friends’ chatter masking his conversation with Marinette.

“You seemed to be quite happy with your gift” the girl teased, taking a long sip from her juice box

Unconsciously, Marc let out a quiet giggle, caressing his own upper arms over his red hoodie.

“I loved it” he mumbled shyly “I didn’t think he would remember that I said that… I mean, it was just something I mentioned randomly”

Marinette lasted a little bit to answer as she had chugged half of her sandwich in one bite.“Ai thenk shou shud tek wt as a saine” she mumbled with her mouth full of jam sandwich. Marc simply let out a giggle and gave his friend a ‘you gotta be kidding me’ glance.

“I know what you’re thinking and I’m just gonna tell you it’s not happening” now it was Marinette who let out a giggle “I’m not telling him ‘I like you’ anytime soon just for your information…”

The sound of someone spitting water out of surprise was Marc’s prologue for disaster.

Marc and Marinette turned back and something deep inside the boy knew he wasn’t going to forget Nathaniel’s face in a very long, long time.

All of sudden, his bruises started to ache from the inside, he felt the blood starting to drip from the back of his head and the wound on his side rip open the exact second he saw the mix of surprise and disgust on Nathaniel’s face and memories started to drown his mind.

‘He’s just like Anton, just like I told you’ his brain muttered, only accelerating his frightened hear.

Blood dropped all the way to his legs and, obeying his instincts, he dropped the sandwich laying on his lap and ran away from the Art Room. His surroundings blurred as did the faces of his confused friends when they realized the birthday boy had suddenly escaped from his own party.

Run.

Run.

Run.

Run.

Fall.

Cry.

* * *

Marc didn’t realize where had he been hiding until his eyes, dried out after who knows how long, finally cleared out of tears and shown him the inside of a closet inside the Chemistry classroom. His body was still shaking from crying spasms and judging by his hiccups, he must have been crying for hours.

Why was this happening again?

He pulled his hoodie over his head and lied lightly over the closet’s door, trying his best not to think. The thought of pulling out his cellphone was discarded: he had forgotten it at the party.

Would it be over already? Marc peeked through the narrow line of the closet’s doors, the windows of the classroom indicating him it was already noon judging by the soft and warm sunlight. Yeah, it should be over by then. He closed the closet again.

Patting his pockets, he realized he had left his cellphone and had no way to call his mother. Feeling his legs heavy, he opened the closet and made for the Art Room thanking how empty the school was. One of the sports clubs had its members running as part of the training, but they didn’t pay too much attention to the boy coming out of the chemistry classroom as nor did the guys at the Robotics Club.

The Art Room had been cleaned from the colored papers, the sound equipment had disappeared, paper dishes for cake were empty and thrown into the trash.

But Marinette was still there, speaking on his phone.

“Alya and Nino just gave another check around the park and my parents say he isn’t at the _patisserie_ either” her voice was soothing the person on the other side of the line “Don’t you worry madam, I will give another check through the school… my pleasure, I will call you in a moment”

It was his mother.

Marinette hadn’t even turned off his phone completely when she turned to face him.

“Marc?!” she almost dropped his phone and hers in surprise. The girl ran and squished him in a tight hug “Oh thank goodness! Your parents were worried! We all were! Are you ok? Where were you?”

But Marc couldn’t form any coherent words as his legs go limp and he let himself turn again into a sobbing mess.

 


	6. Bittersweet recovery... or just bitter

It was already Friday and while most students of the Collége Francois Dupont were crawling out of their beds with the fervent wish for school to end and start to enjoy the weekend. That, of course, wasn’t the case for Marc.

“It seems your fever finally got down _mon ange_ ” his mother breathed with relief after checking the thermometer “Still, I will call to school”

“ _D’accord, maman_ ”

Roxanne was giving him a loud smooch on his forehead when his father peeked from the door. Two minutes ago, he had come in for a goodbye kiss from his son and wife so both of them turned their heads at him, as any response he simply shown them the kitchen’s phone.

“It’s Marinette” he appointed while handing the phone to his son, he thanked with a nod

“Mari?” he asked as a greeting

“ _Bonjour_ _Marc!_ ” Marinette chirped on the other side of the line “ _Are you feeling better? Is your fever down? Have my notes been useful?_ ”

“They have, thank you so much!” Mari definitely had the power of putting a smile on anyone’s face with her kindness “My fever is down so I’m back at home too”

The moment he had arrived home to his worried sick parents, he had collapsed in the living room before he could give an explanation to why had he been missing all afternoon, feeling freezing while Roxanne and Timothée panicked before their son’s boiling body and Marinette gasped in horror when she saw her friend shook on the ground. ‘Stress fever’ the doctor reassured them at the hospital before recommending them to have the boy stay to keep him in check as he hadn’t woken from his faint.

He had never thought he would end up thanking that stay at the hospital for an excuse not to go to school and run into a certain redhead.

“ _You are? Super!_ ” the entrance bell rang in the background of Marinette’s voice “ _The nurse yesterday ditched me because I wasn’t a relative! So you better be prepared to eat so many cupcakes you’ll be back at the hospital tonight!_ ”

 “I’ll get ready, then” Marc chuckled. He knew she wasn’t kidding “I don’t want to be the one who pulls you out of class”

Marinette complained “ _Ugh… alright. I’ll be at your house this afternoon then. Bye and take care!_ ”

Marc placed the phone at the night table and sighed. He didn’t really feel that bad physically speaking, of course having his body burning through a whole night hadn’t been the best experience ever but his headache was long gone and his legs started to demand movement, but his mind was a complete different issue.

Long story short, his brain hadn’t shut up ever since he had come out of the chemistry closet.

“ _Mon ange_ ,” his mom peeked through the door “are you sure you are ok with me going to work? I can stay again if you need to”

“I’ll be fine mom” he assured her

Roxanne´s face drew half of a smile in a mute agreement to his son. Marc heard the door shut after she had placed a kiss on his forehead and waved goodbye.

The bad thing about being all alone at home was that if one didn’t find something to distract oneself, the brain would start to think. And in Marc’s case, that was a seriously bad idea; so, as soon as his mother was gone, he got up, made himself breakfast and started to clean a bit.

* * *

Marinette arrived like spring breeze to the freezing land that was his house.

“Your daily sugar intake is here!” she chirped as soon as she came in packed with two boxes of cupcakes.

Marc was super conscious of how disheveled he looked but Marinette being the awesome person she was noted how ‘good’ he looked. She must have been complimenting how he no longer looked like the swollen-eyed zombie he was when she dropped him in his house.

“I’m already done with yesterday’s notes” Marc longed a notebook to Marinette once they were sitting and eating half of the first box “A thousand thanks again”

Marc had welcomed her in the living room as it would have been pretty difficult to find a place to sit in his room with his bed and writing desk occupying most of the space and then his books and journals filling the rest. Besides, his room smelled like medicine. The living room was definitely better.

“No problem!” she chirped, mouth stuffed in frosting “Everyone in the Art Room says hi and are happy you’re getting better!”

“Everyone…?” he mumbled slowly, letting the word linger on his tongue.

His parents hadn’t spoke about the subject ever since he had woken up from his feverish sleep and neither had done Marinette on their chats through the phone since she hadn’t been allowed to visit him at the hospital.

“Yeah, everyone” Marinette passed her hand over his bony shoulders “I know that physically you’re doing fine… but what about that part? You ok?”

Marc couldn’t help a sigh escape his lips.

“I honestly don’t know” he admitted, hunching a little more and feeling the urgent need of his hood “I thought about it only to find I just didn’t want to think about it. Maybe I should, I dunno, like write him an apology?”

Marinette’s jaw dropped in shock to reveal a puree of mint cupcake.

“Why in the whole wide world would you write an apology?” Marinette exploded, voice full of anger “It’s not like you insulted him or you hit him or anything!”

That had been what he had wanted to think but it only took a quick flash of Nathanuel’s face, shocked, wide eyed, mouth open wide and damp for his brain to shut any other thoughts off. How he wished his brain was a separate entity so he could give it a good ninja kick in the occipital lobe.

“His _face_ Mari. I know what I saw” he insisted, tugging his pajama shirt given the absence of his red hoodie “Its been haunting me every time I close my eyes”

“So, what do you want to do?” Marinette asked, sliding closer to him on the couch

Well, he sort of had an idea but he wasn’t exactly sure Marinette was going to like it and he only saw his suspicions getting confirmed after she told his best friend and she simply widened her eyes in shock. But honestly? This was the best solution he could think of: in the end, there were only two people who knew about it and he hadn’t starred in a complete scandal like in his previous school. He had a really privileged position this time.

Marinette let her shoulders drop once he was done explaining his idea. It was obvious she didn’t like it in the slightest.

“Let me guess that if you are telling me it’s because you already wrote the thing” she looked at him in defeat

“I almost finish it” he admitted “The idea is that it will give him a bit of time while he gets someone else”

Things were going to be awkward between them, there was no way of denying that. Two days lying in bed had given him time not only to accept it but to think about some kind of solution. Perhaps not much for him, but for Nath: in the end, he didn’t deserve to get mixed in Marc’s dramas and traumas.

“May I ask you something?” his friend glanced his way with doubt

A nod. He was like an open book in front of her.

“Do you still like him?”

Had he ever stopped to think how calming Marinette’s eyes were? Perhaps not until that moment. Two full and round pools the color of summer sky, bright and smooth with the power of making anyone feel safe. There had only been another pair of eyes able to have that effect on him.

“Yes”

Or maybe they still had it.

 


	7. Finally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title says it all. Enjoy!

Marc had been welcomed by a tsunami wave of friends the moment he had stepped out of his mother’s car. The same questions flooded his ears over and over: if he was alright now, what kind of sickness he had got, if he had visited the hospital, if he was eating right, if he had got back all the presents he had left behind, if he needed anyone’s notes.

Once everything was a bit calmer, he finally made up his way to the stairs and to his classroom. Madame Mendeleiev seemed satisfied he had asked for the notes he had missed on his two days of absence and let him enclose in himself for the rest of the class.

Marinette came to his rescue during lunch break with a _croque monsieur_ as a recovery gift and as an excuse to desperately try to draw him away from his goal. Something she couldn’t do successfully over the weekend despite the talks either face to face or through the phone.

“Marc, are you sure you’re going to do it?” she questioned, munching her own lunch. He just nodded, lunch was too good to be interrupted by sad things.

“Listen, if things are going to be awkward between us, then so be it. But the comic shouldn’t be affected by all this too. It’s simply not fair”

It was a thought that had taken him two nights and a day in the hospital to forge in his mind, it wasn’t fair for Nathaniel nor for the comic nor for the fans who awaited the update each month at the Fan’s meeting nor for Ladybug and Chat Noir who had shown themselves in one of those gatherings declaring to be fans of the comic themselves. Nope it wasn’t fair at all.

So, the day he arrived back home he grabbed the first journal his eyes saw and set to write until his eyes closed in a deep sleep. He repeated the routine each day he was stuck with sickness at home.

The dialogues came so easy to his hand and even easier to his pen that by the end of the weekend he had to rip off the pages that had been written previously on the journal, so he could fill the pages with complete freedom. The result of that intense and sickly vacation was a journal as thick as the _croque monsieur_ he was munching on. Well spent, that material could last some good two volumes.

“But tell me” Marinette interrupted his friend’s thoughts when she was done with her own lunch “is it fair for you?”

Did it matter? Not at all, what he had done wasn’t fair for Nath nor for the amazing friendship they had had to that day and that was all that really mattered. He knew his feelings were unrequited and he was willing to swallow them and never let go but thanks to his damn tongue he had messed it up by giving Nath something he didn’t ask for and that had surely affected him.

Actually, considering it all, what he was about to do was pretty fair to him.

In front of him, Marinette let out a loud sigh. There was no need for words with his best friend at all.

Both finished their lunch in silence.

* * *

 

 

Marc’s palms were sweating to the point he was starting to fear for the journal he was holding. He would be even more embarrassed than he already was if he delivered a wrinkled journal.

His phone buzzed in his pocket with a text from Rose. She and Juleka were about to leave the Art Room and they had asked Nathaniel to stay listening their new song. He had green light, he thought while he saw the two girls coming out of the door hand in hand and excitedly talking about one of their projects.

Marc didn’t have time for jealousy to show on his face when both girls noticed his presence and walked his direction to say hi.

“Good to see you back” Juleka’s almost-expressionless voice mumbled with a light smile

“Yes yes! Please tell us when the new issue comes out” Rose chirped while wrapping her arms around his neck.

The couple waved goodbye at him before disappearing in the staircase. Ugh, he wasn’t ready for this but if he waited for that ready-ness to come his way, then he was never going inside that classroom. The sooner he was done with it, the better.

Feeling a courage he knew wouldn’t last for long, he came into the Art Room to find a lonely-sitting Nath bouncing his head softly to the rhythm coming from a pair of thick headphones. Not sure the other boy had noted his presence, Marc coughed a little.

“Hi Nath” he greeted sheepishly. The other boy fixed on him a gaze Marc couldn’t tell if was of surprise or fear. Strange.

“Hi Marc” was it his ear or had Nath’s voice wobbled a little while saying his name?

_Maybe we should start running_ , his brain mumbled. _Shut the fuck up_ , he answered back.

“Are you feeling better?” Nath continued, lowering his gaze.

He nodded timidly and, taking away the dramatic part of the hospital, told him he had probably caught a cold somewhere as the reason behind his four-day absence from school.

“But it’s gone already” yeah, that was a good start for what was coming next. He handed the thick journal to Nathaniel “Anyway, this is for you”

The redhead received it with both hands before inspecting the first pages with a quick glance. His aquamarine eyes then flashed through the rest of the journal in a blur of flashing pages before lifting them up at Marc with pure shock. He proceeded to explain before Nath said anything and made him lose the thread of his thoughts.

“There’s a whole arc in there, dialogues and descriptions. Maybe you can make it last two volumes, that way you can have at least three months to find a writer. I’m in a writer’s club and we gather every Saturday, some of them like the project” Nath had his mouth open still but he wasn’t done yet. He knew if he stopped there, his whole body would betray him “I’m really sorry for what happened but I know if we keep doing this together, things will be awkward between us so you can be sure I won’t be bothering you again but I want to give you this as an apology and a sign of thanks”

Knuckles getting white in nervousness, Marc tried to hold the rest of his words but, as if taking revenge for shutting it before, his brain took control over his tongue.

“I’m sorry if I made you uneasy, you have all the right to think I’m disgusting but I’m also really thankful for you giving me a chance after what happened with Reverser, for making the comic with me and for being my friend”

_Stop right there_ , he warned his brain. _No. You came here to say thanks, do it properly._

“I’m glad you didn’t react badly to it” he had lost control of his tongue “I switched schools at the middle of the course because a guy in my previous school hit me with his friends when he knew I liked him. I was in the hospital for a month and I still have to go to the psychiatrist, but I don’t like to go. But you made it better, you and the comic gave my mind something to work on and I was feeling better. I’m glad I was friends with you and I also regret ruining it”

Tears were starting to form in his eyes, He waited a few moments for a word to come out of Nathaniel’s open mouth but silence was still parked in the room. That was his signal to get out.

“I should get going” the salty water in his eyes started to itch, he knew he wouldn’t hold for much longer.

Marc started to make for the door, walking with his head hunching between his shoulders. He had no intention of running, at least not until he was out of the Art Room, he had no intention of letting Nathaniel see how vulnerable he was, how naked his heart had been when he had let all those words out of his lips.

“Wait!” was the only warning he heard before Nathaniel’s hand wrapped around his wrist. His hands were cold as if it was the middle of the winter.

He was only a few steps away from the door. Marc tried to let go off his hand, but Nathaniel only tightened his grip with shaking fingers.

“What if I told you…” as his hand, Nath’s voice was trembling. Still, Marc wouldn’t turn around “what if I told you I don’t think you’re disgusting?”

_He’s lying,_ both him and his brain deduced.

“What if I told you…that I really like how you seem to kiss your pen when you are really focused on writing?” Nath continued, each word taking a brick off the walls he had built around himself “That I like how your hair is so dark it reflects a rainbow when you stand in the sun? That I like how you act the lines of your characters when you write? That I like the pink of your…lips because it’s the color of strawberry milk…”

Marc’s legs were starting to feel wobbly, his everything being completely exposed.

“That I like the color of your eyes because my favorite color pencil as a child was that exact tone of green” Nath’s voice trembled again “Whu… what if I told you that…I like you too?”

The single thing he was aware of were his cheeks getting damp in salty water drops.

Aside of it, the inside of his mind was a buzzing broken TV, his heart seemed to stop its pumping functions and his arms were suddenly a pair of loose threads hanging on his sides. The only reacting part of himself which he was still conscious about was his wrist, the grip of Nath’s fingers feeling like raw fire on his skin despite being so cold.

“Marc?”

His legs gave in first before his limp body followed, drained from any energy, to the Art Room’s floor and he didn’t even try to help it. Even with his eyes unfocused, his brain registered the thick drops splatting from his eyes.

It wasn’t that he was sad. Nothing farther from the truth: he hadn’t felt so happy ever since he had come out to his parents a year before. But he had never felt anything so raw as to what Nathaniel had made him with his words in that moment and it had been utterly overwhelming.

“Marc?” Nath’s voice sounded frightened and guilty, making his heart clutch “Are you ok?”

He wiped his tears away with his hoodie’s sleeve and nodded sheepishly “Never been better”

Oh god, Nathaniel’s smile was something he could probably write a whole ten page poem. The other boy’s cheeks were tinted in a soft color like that of a peach blossom, Nathaniel was staring at him so intensely and sheepishly at the same time he thought his own cheeks would set up on fire.

Nath hadn’t let go off his wrist yet but his fingers were starting to timidly climb up his arm, but he hadn’t even reached the fold of his inner elbow when he seemed to realize what he was doing and lifted his aquamarine eyes to meet Marc’s, asking for his permission. How could he deny him so? Marc smiled shyly and leaned slightly towards the redhead.

One of his first memories was of his parents holding him tight, either because one of his academic victories or after he had fallen from his bike. He had received a thousand of hugs during his birthday, all of them overflowing with a feel of joyful affection. But the way Nathaniel was holding him felt completely different.

It was gentle, as if trying to console him for all the distress he had felt in the last week.

It was comfortable, as if he wanted to demonstrate him how he really wanted to be with him.

It was warm, as if that body warmth was a true reflection of his feelings in case Marc hadn’t been clear enough.

It was tight, as if he didn’t want to let him go.

“I…wasn’t disgusted” Nath mumbled softly, bringing Marc back “I was shocked. I have to confess that before doing the comic with you… I had a crush on Ladybug but you changed it. You are like art”

Marc felt his brows knit together in a confusion frown, blinking while lifting his gaze at the jaw skin of the redhead.

“Art?”

Nathaniel smiled at him.

“You make me feel a lot of things and even if I stared at you during what takes you to walk through all the Louvre, I still wouldn’t get tired”

Oh, Marc seriously hoped the fluttering in his stomach stayed there as well as the percussion of his heart. It would be seriously embarrassing.

“I…wished I could say something pretty too” Marc mumbled nervously “But my head is honestly such a spaghetti mess right now”

Nathaniel’s chest raised and fell beneath his head in a chuckle. It was nice, he could hear how accelerated his heartbeat was at first and how calm it was now they were tangled in a hug “That’s fine, we have time… I mean, that if you want to be with me of course…”

Was that…a declaration?!

Ok but what if it wasn’t and he wasted everything again? Should he ask the redhead? Or would that be rude? If it wasn’t, then at the very least he would look like a total fool… Ugh he was never good with indirect words, but this was even more than he could stand.

“Or is it too soon?” Nathaniel’s words were trembling with fear

“No!” that answer had been way louder than he intended, so much even Nath had backed and lift his hands from Marc’s body “I mean… I want to be with you”

A pair of aquamarine eyes squinted at him as the redhead smiled and he felt his own strawberry-milk lips curve into a wide smile as well. Nathaniel started to move his hands on him to get in the hug again.

But just when Marc was getting his head resting on the other boy’s shoulder, three loud car beeps came from the school’s entrance, making both boys jump in surprise.

“ _Merde_ ” Marc mumbled low, immediately blushing for the word and making Nathaniel laugh in the process “That’s got to be my mom… sorry, I have to go”

Nath nodded before standing up and helping the other boy to do so as well.

“That’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow for writing the comic?”

Marc was pretty sure his skin would reap open if he kept smiling so wide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys probably want me dead for taking so long to upload this but college exams got me in low guard. Luckily I had this chapter planned already from the beginning so I could work a little faster.  
> I still want to add a little epilogue in a couple of days so wait for it!
> 
> Thank you for reading!  
> *bows*


	8. Marc and Nath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both dorks have clear their feelings for each other, but Marc doesn't know 'what' they are. Maybe Nath can give him a hint...

“MARI!”

Marinette’s face hit her bedroom’s floor when after slipping off her bed. Not that she slept in the pose of a princess but Alya’s voice resonated in her ears so loudly, she couldn’t help the surprise nor the hit of the ground. A quick peek to her purse told her Tikki had been wise enough to stay hidden.

“MARI!” Alya sat on the now-free bed, her eyes wide and sparkling with that joy she only shown whenever an awesome scoop came to her ears or eyes “Mari you’re not going to believe what I have here!”

“Ugh” Marinette’s still sleepy body made a huge effort to left her up on the bed again “what is it?”

Chat Noir and her had fight against an akumatized villain three days prior, another of the reasons why she couldn’t stay longer fighting with the nurse to see Marc: a girl with a really long hair didn’t make herself clear at the hairdresser and ended with a pixie cut. Next thing Paris knew, _Raiponce_ had taken down half of the city’s beauty salons.

Aside from that incident, everything had been pretty chill so she really couldn’t think of a Ladybug scoop.

“Look what happened after school!”

Alya placed her her phone’s screen so close to her eyes that she could clearly count the tilting pixels of the image. After making her head a little backwards, Marinette couldn’t help but gasp in surprise before her mouth turned into a smile.

The photo had been clearly taken from the opposite side of the school’s second floor to the Art Room, so the real focus of the photo appeared a little small but it was really noticeable and really cute: Nathaniel’s arms around Marc’s body while the two lovebirds gazed sappily into each other’s eyes.

“Aren’t they super cute?!” Alya shrieked “I knew staying for extra lessons would pay off!”

The victorious declaration of her friend made Marinette laugh “Right… I don’t think this photo was Madame Bustier’s goal”

“Who cares! You gotta get me the exclusive with Marc!”

Ah, Marinette really didn’t like the messed up plot-twists life sometimes gave her and the people around her, but this one? She was so glad life didn’t let Marc give that journal to Nathaniel.

“If the lovebird isn’t busy with his new boyfriend you’ll have a sure interview with him”

Alya chirped in joy and hugged her tight.

* * *

 

Did something good happened, _mon ange?_ ”

His father’s voice took him out of the pink-glossy bubble he had been stuck in since he had been in Nathaniel’s arms, almost dropping the cup of hot chocolate he was holding. He pulled a few hair strands over his face, so he could hide the blush burning on his cheeks.

“Oh, no, not really” he replied sheepishly, hurrying the chocolate down his throat so he could avoid answering more questions.

“Hmmm” still, he felt Timothée’s eyes piercing through him “You have been smiling a lot lately”

Oh, damnit. Think, think.

“I’m just happy I don’t have fever anymore, that’s all” he tried to control the extent of his smile while saying those words. His father seemed content with the answer and went back to his coffee and newspaper. Luckily his mother had been off to work early and wasn’t around for more daggering questions.

“I made you an omelette, please eat quick if you don’t want to be late for school” his father mumbled

It was a little early to go around telling his parents what had happened with Nathaniel the previous afternoon on his opinion. His mom would surely be super doubtful of both boys dating after the Reverser incident and the quite significant hospital visit he had to pay for being ‘stressed’ over the redhead.

His head denied quickly, turning his thoughts away. He better hurry or his mother would leave him behind. School would do him good: some inorganic chemistry combinations and math equations would give his brain something to think about other than beautiful red locks, lovely freckles, aquamarine crystal irises…

Stop. Right. There. Marc.

He gulped down the rest of the _omelette_ in one take and rushed his blushed-self down the stairs.

Whichever wish he had had of solving inorganic chemistry combinations in his kitchen while he was having breakfast were quickly satisfied the moment he stepped inside Madame Mendeleiev’s lab. In fact, by the end of the class he found himself regretting wishing so hard for the bunch exercise papers inside his backpack which now were bending his poor column.

If he was complaining about the weight of his backpack impeding him to crouch like he would normally do, then he was pretty sure he could easily get a job at Cirque du Soleil with the backbend Alya gave him with an overjoyed tackle hug.

“How’s my second favorite lovebird doing?” she giggled next to his ear while he suddenly felt as if he was a boiler.

“Wu…what?!”

“We’re really glad for you and Nath!” Marinette chirped over her friend’s shoulder “If you need a place for your first date, take for sure I’ll always have the best desserts reserved for the cutest boyfriends!”

His face wanted to fall off in embarrassment.

“Uh… we just… we didn’t…” awesome, now his tongue was all tangled in a knot the size of Paris “We aren’t b…boy…boyfriends”

Marc had to rise his hands to his face. That little word could still send sparks flying here and there when he thought of sharing the adjective with Nathaniel and though it felt a little closer now, it still was far from his reach.

Still, Alya glanced at him as if he had just stated the sky was green “Yeah right. Listen, I’ve been in this pose with Nino enough times to know what this is all about”

The girl wasted no time in searching for the photos she had snapped the previous afternoon in her phone’s gallery. With the screen only a centimeter from his nose, he felt his skin boil again before the image of him and Nathaniel holding each other in the Art Room. They did look cute though…

“Come on,” Alya insisted “You guys can now try to compete with Nino and me for the ‘Cutest Couple’ in school…though I really doubt you guys can win over us”

“Um, Marc?”

The three friends turned their heads to the left and Marc’s heart skipped a beat.

Nathaniel was standing with the color of his hair on his face, his torso looking a little bit slenderer in an attempt to hide what seemed to be a weird-shaped box wrapped in brown paper behind his back, a really bad attempt, Marc thought in awe. Though Alya didn’t seem so eager to, Marinette grabbed her friend’s arm and led both their footsteps out of the way.

“Um… are you busy?” Nathaniel asked sheepishly but obviously more relaxed now that the girls were gone.

“No…not really” he had a full hour before his next hour and the chemistry exercises could wait until the afternoon, so it wasn’t completely a lie

“Then… can you come for a second?” the other boy’s face got even redder than before, something that seemed impossible “I would like to tell you something if you have time”

All of the overjoy and happiness he had been feeling ever since that hug the previous afternoon was suddenly drained off his body the moment those words left Nathaniel’s lips.   _He’s regretting it,_ his brain concluded but he simply swallowed hard and nodded, following the redhead’s footsteps to the library.

The wide room was basically empty save for the book-filled furniture and the check desk, unattended when it wasn’t lunch time yet.

“Marc?”

His mind snapped, finding himself in the reading section, about six or seven unoccupied tables surrounding them. Nathaniel was looking about a shade or two redder than the hairlocks he was trying so hard to hide behind when Marc lifted his gaze at him; he started to slowly get his backpack’s straps off his shoulders, revealing the boxed package he was carrying inside. Was he carrying a telescope or something?

“Um, yesterday…” Nathaniel started “When we were at the Art Room, all of the things you said when you gave me the script… I honestly felt bad”

Marc’s breath hitched after those words and his brain didn’t make itself wait to put its two cents. _You see? He pitied you, he only feels pity, otherwise he wouldn’t have hold you or even heard you._ No, he likes me back… _Kid, you heard him: he felt bad for you, that’s it._

“…because I felt you were the only one opening up” Nath’s voice brought him back to reality, the other guy was staring at his feet sheepishly and when he gathered courage enough to look at Marc in the eyes, the other boy felt his cheeks burn and his heart run “After our celebration for the comic’s first issue, when you said you only admired me, I felt sad… whenever we worked together I could see sparks in your eyes, you smiled, your voice sounded excited, you seemed happy and I wished you saw me that way”

His lips parted a little in surprise, but he had no intention of speaking.

“I have to admit I was a little confused when I realized I liked you, I won’t lie, but when I started to ask myself if I was uncomfortable liking another man…but I found I was ok only if it is you” he laughed a little to himself  and started to unwrap “What I want to say is… I would love if I could be your boyfriend, if you want to as well”

Oh. Oh God.

He needed to pinch himself or something just to convince himself this wasn’t a dream, but his body didn’t seem to react and, honestly, neither his brain. For once in like ten years, his brain’s voice was completely shut down. But he had to answer, it didn’t matter if his mind had been blown out into space.

“I…yes”

It wasn’t Nath’s relieved expression nor the huge bouquet hiding underneath the brown paper what brought him out of shock, but the warm and gentle touch of arms surrounding his body, sending sparks all over his skin and allowing himself to drown in comfort. His subconscious told him to be careful not to hit Nathaniel with the bouquet.

Marc could feel the tightness of the embrace, the warmth emanating from a body that was foreign and still felt so his, the soft red locks giving him tickles on his left cheek, the soft yet anxious breath on his neck and the almost unnoticeable lingering touch of Nath’s lips curved into a smile over his skin. Oh, this was heaven.

Or it had been, until Nathaniel pulled apart from the embrace. Much to his dismay, he let go, till looking down so his flushed face wasn’t so evident.

“Ummm… Marc?” Nath’s voice made him rise his eyes at a face that was maybe as flushed as himself “Remember when I told you I liked your lips because they looked like strawberry milk?”

Oh, he did. He had even thought about it again in the morning when he was done with washing his teeth. He had even applied a little bit of lip balm he found on his mother’s night table.

“Well, I kind of want to know if they…” Nathaniel cut himself while Marc was pretty sure he must have been hallucinating “Can I?”

A nod and then he had to close his eyes before Nathaniel could see how much he was freaking out through his irises.

It was so sweet and gentle he felt like melting as soon as he felt the other boy’s lips against his own, his tummy was boiling in a mix of joy, excitement, nervousness and a thousand and one more emotions he couldn’t identify even if his mind had access to each dictionary of every existing language.

They lingered with their lips still pressed against each other’s before Nathaniel eagerness made the contact again, it was still soft but a little needier to the point Marc couldn’t hold too long until he, unfortunately, had to break the kiss in the search for air.

Words would have unnecessary in the narrow space between their embracing bodies but smiles and shy but still happy looks seemed to be perfectly fine with one and other.

Of course the spell was broken the second they stepped out of the library when Alya threw a challenge at them after seeing the insanely huge flower bouquet: the next Valentine’s either they won their first title or she and Nino would double their victory.

 


End file.
